Fútbol – Noticias hoy y resultados de Liga, Champions

The Old UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) Cup it’s now called Europa League due to competition rebranding to attract bigger teams interest. Last edition of the old structure was the 2008-2009 season, won by romanian manager Mircea Lucescu with his ukrainean team Shaktar Donetsk.

A total of 192 teams from 53 UEFA associations are expected to participate in the 2009-2010 UEFA Europa League season. Each country / association will send a number of teams according to their UEFA coefficient. The top countries are England, Spain and Italy each with three teams places followed by Germany and France each sending 3 teams.

The only difference between first 3 and these 2 it’s the UEFA Champions League Places.

To be mentioned that current cup holders, Shaktar Donetsk have a place guaranteed in the group stage even if they are not in the right position in their country league, «The Ukrainian Premier League».

Also, the top three associations of the 2008-2009 UEFA Fair Play ranking (Norway, Denmark, Scotland) each gain an additional berth.

Distribution is as follows:

1) First qualifying round (46 teams)

2) Second qualifying round (80 teams)

3) Third qualifying round (70 teams)

4) Play-off round (76 teams)

5) Group stage (48 teams)

6) Knockout stage (32 teams)

To be mentioned that also the prizes in money have increased once with the rebranding process and the brand new competition also got a new identity logo. The Europa league final will be played in Germany, Arena Hamburg on 12th May 2010

The phrase ‘play ball’ has most probably emerged from our natural instinct to kick at anything we find lying on the ground, be it paper, plastic or a rubber ball. In the olden days, people even kicked heads for fun. The Chinese in the Ts’in and the Dan dynasties invented animal skin balls between 255BC -220 AD, which they dribbled between two poles through gaps in nets. The ancient Egyptians conducted rituals which resembled a football and the Greeks and Romans also played similar games.

Even the South Americans Indians knew the use of a light elasticized ball. During the pre – medieval times, people of an entire village took to kicking a skull into the square of another village, as a favorite past time. The bladder of pigs was inflated and used for playing. Hence the shape and size of the ball depended on the pig’s bladder, so the trajectory of the ball when kicked could not be predicted. This habit of kicking slowly saw the evolution of the first ever rubber ball in 1855, when Charles Goodyear, after patenting vulcanized rubber, made the first ever rubber ball, which now stands displayed at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, NY, USA.

In 1862, H. J. Lindon, invented the first inflatable rubber bladders for balls. The next year, the newly created football association chalked out the rules of the game. By 1872, it was agreed that the ball would be ‘spherical with a circumference of 27 or 28 inches’ and would weigh 13 to 15 oz, which exists even today in the FIFA rule book. In 1937, the weight was increased to 14 to 16 oz. According to the Encyclopedia of Association Football which was first published in 1956, the ball has to be spherical with and outer casing of leather or other approved materials, while the size and weight has remained constant till date.

The founding of the English Football League in 1888 gave a fillip to the mass production of soccer balls, with Mitre and Thomlinson of Glasgow being the first two companies to begin manufacturing. Retaining the shape of the ball was imperative, so good quality leather covers were made from the rump of the cow. The 20th Century brought changes in the design as interlocking panels replaced the large leather sections that met at the north and south of the ball.

The color of the soccer ball in the 1950s used to be orange so as to make it visible while playing on snow. In 1951, the first white ball was played with using floodlights. By 1980s, leather was totally replaced by synthetic material. The present 32 panel soccer ball in white and black is the invention of Richard Buckminster Fuller, consisting of 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal surfaces. This soccer ball was first marketed by Select in Denmark in the 1950s and the first official FIFA world cup soccer ball – the Adidas Telstar was used in the World Cup at Mexico in 1970.

It was a delightful crop of players that stormed the 1994 World Cup, brushing aside Bulgaria and Greece 3-0 and 2-0 respectively before succumbing to the superior power of the Argentinian 2-1.

The Super Eagles however topped their group and qualified for the second round where they played former world champions Italy.

Nigeria was within one minute of qualifying for the Quarter finals of the 1994 world cup in the game against Italy, when Roberto Baggio scored to take the game into extra time. He also scored the winning goal for Italy.

In 1998 France hosted the World Cup, with Nigeria qualified alongside Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa for a second consecutive time.

With optimism running so high due to the return of most 1994 squad members, the Super Eagles created one of the biggest upsets in football history in their opening game, by defeating Spain 3-2, in a pulsating encounter at the La Beaujoire stadium in Nantes France, where creative midfielder Sunday Oliseh scored one of the best goals of the tournament through a blistering 45 meters cannon from outside the 18 yard box, to beat veteran Spanish goalkeeper Zubizereta, who was forced to go into retirement. That victory propelled the rating of the Super Eagles World wide, and Sunday Oliseh goal was celebrated in major television stations worldwide as a classical masterpiece.

The Super Eagles then went ahead to qualify for the second round with win against Bulgaria 1-0, despite losing their last group match 3-1 to Paraguay.

Their hope of making it to the last eight was shattered by Denmark who walloped the Super Eagles 4-1 in the second round encounter.

The 2002 FIFA World cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan saw Nigeria Qualifying for the third straight time with great optimism.

With a brand new squad and a new indigenous coach Onigbinde Adegboye, Nigerians back home had so many reasons to be hopeful of a good outing.

The Super Eagles were drawn in group F that was then regarded as the «group of death» alongside Sweden, Argentina, and England.

It was an early flight home for the Super Eagles after successive defeat in the hands of Argentina 1-0 and Sweden 2-1.

A scoreless draw against England was not good enough for a second round ticket.

The Super Eagles narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2006 World Cup.

The group’s sole ticket was grabbed by Palancas Negras of Angola, which had a superior goal difference than the Super Eagles.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by South Africa did not go as expected, as Nigeria was humbled 1-0 by a resilient Argentina side which was inspired by Lionel Messi. The goal margin would have been more, but for the heroic of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. In their second match, the Super Eagles were once again defeated by an under performing Greece 2-1 before they managed a 2-2 draw with South Korea. The solitary point was not sufficient to take Nigeria to the second round.

The Euro 2012 Championships will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The tournament is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will expand to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to host the tournament.

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to have games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian venues will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

The final will take place in Kiev which will also have a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the premier stadiums and sporting complexes in the world. The new stadium in Warsaw is also under construction and promises to be a start of the art venue.

The draw for the tournament has already been conducted and qualifying matches will begin following the 2010 World Cup. Each of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will receive direct entry into the tournament. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

From Group A you would think Germany and Turkey would be too strong with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a three way race between Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

In Group C it looks like it will be easy for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take second.

There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

Croatia and Greece are the favorites in terms of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would appear to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time excitement and anticipation for the Euro 2012 tournament will be well and truly underway.